


Delayed Marriage

by MonsieurMadeleine



Category: Gladiator (2000)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Break Up, Depression, M/M, Makeup Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 02:22:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9945956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonsieurMadeleine/pseuds/MonsieurMadeleine
Summary: Cleander proposes to Commodus. In a panic, Commodus flees. Commodus POV.B.T.W. This is based on the real Commodus. In real life he did have a relation with a Cleander.





	

My dear Cleander takes my hand, leading me outside the palace. And then I spot a trail of flower pedals laid out for me. We follow the trail of flower pedals until we reach a heart of pedals. Cleander leads me to the middle and kneels in front of me, using his free hand to take out a little box. And then his hand leaves mine to open it, showing me a beautiful golden ring.

‘Commodus,’ he starts. ‘I know I shouldn’t do this, and I know that people will disapprove it, but I don’t care. You know I love you just as much as you love me, and I know that too. You are the love of my life and I can’t imagine a life without you anymore. You have become the most important thing in my life. I’d do anything for you. I’d give my life to lead you out of harms way. And of course, I want to stay with you for the rest of our lives. Even death can’t separate us anymore. That’s why I want to ask you to marry me so we can be united forever.’

My breath stocks in my throat. Of course I love Cleander, but I can’t marry him. I’d love to marry him, but the people will laugh at me. To make matters even worse, my wife doesn’t even know about my relationship with Cleander. How will she react if I tell her that I’m going to marry him?

‘I… I love you too but… My position… My wife…’ I stammer, completely confused. It feels as if a huge, invisible hand chokes me, not letting me breathe.

I gape like a fish as I stumble backwards, and as Cleander gets up to hug me, I stumble further and further until I trip and fall. Luckily Cleander catches me and prevents me from falling down. As I straighten my clothes, Cleander and I kiss again, and I feel his hand secretly shoving the ring around my finger. That’s the sign to flee. My feet carry me back to the palace at an incredible speed, but they don’t stop running at the door. They carry me to my bedroom where I collapse on the bed, the tears welling up in my eyes.

Cleander is going to hate me for this. He will never love me again. Maybe he’ll abandon me forever.

A few minutes of silence, and then someone knocks on the door.

‘Cleander?’ I ask. ‘Is it you? Please, I don’t want to see you at the moment. I’m confused.’ My voice trembles, just as my body.

‘No, it’s me, Lucilla.’ The door opens and Lucilla enters. She sits down next to me on the bed, fondling my hair, almost as if I’m a little boy again. ‘What happened between you and Cleander?’ Lucilla asks, her soft voice comforting me a bit. ‘You didn’t fight, did you? Let me see. Sit up.’ Lucilla’s hand is on my shoulder, letting me know that I can trust her. I take a deep breath before sitting up and leaning my head on her shoulder. ‘What happened between you and Cleander?’ she asks again. What should I tell her about Cleander? Just his name makes the tears roll down my cheeks.

‘H–he is my boyfriend...’ I cry. ‘I–I love h–him but he p–proposed to me… He wanted t–to marry me…’

‘So why does that upset you, brother? If you want to marry him, I won’t try to stop you. You are allowed to be happy, just like anyone else. You have the right to be happy. You need to be happy. I hate it to see you depressed like this. It breaks my heart.’ Lucilla tips my chin up, forcing me to face her, and then her hand goes through my hair as her eyes stare in to mine. Slowly the sobs subside and I can breathe normally again.

‘I love you sister. You are exactly who I need at the moment.’ We smile, but the luck is soon disturbed by footsteps approaching us. And as I expected, Cleander appears in the door opening.

‘Commodus, I’m sorry that I startled you so, but you must know I want to marry you. As soon as possible. You are my love.’ His eyes beg me to respond. They beg me to say yes, but I can’t. I can’t marry him. And thus I take the ring off my finger and give it back to Cleander, the silent tears still rolling down my cheeks.

‘It’s better not to see each other anymore’ I say, my own words breaking my heart in to at least a thousand shatters. ‘I love you dearly, and I’ll never be able to fully let you go, but… We aren’t allowed to be happy. We aren’t allowed to…’

‘But Commodus… I love you!’ The silent tears run down Cleander’s face too. ‘We are made for each other! We are made to love each other!’ His hands shove the ring around my finger once more before those hands grab my shoulders. ‘I love you Commodus, and I can’t leave you before you say yes! I can’t leave you before you agree to marry me!’

‘Then you’ll have to stay here forever because I can’t marry you. We are not allowed to be happy. Not like this.’ For the second and last time, I give the ring back to Cleander, but this time I shove him out of my bedroom, ignoring his protests. I close the door behind him and lock it. After that I fall in to Lucilla’s open arms, crying like a little boy, still ignoring Cleander’s love confessions and his begging for me to marry him, to let him in to my heart again. But I’ll be firm this time. I’ll have to bid him adieu forever.

***

It’s a week later. I’ve been crying every day, partly because Lucilla asked me about Cleander every day. His name alone could make the tears run down my face. So now I know how love sickness feels. It feels awful. I’ve refused to eat, I’ve refused to sign any documents and my nephew couldn’t get a useful word out of me. No one could, by the way. The only thing that I’ve been doing was drinking a lot of wine, and vomiting it out again after some time after which I’d be reminded of Cleander by Lucilla which would result in me drinking even more alcohol. And so the vicious circle would continue. Shortly; my situation has been miserable ever since.

Again I vomit out a lot of alcohol. And again I feel Lucilla’s hand on my shoulder. She turns my face to the side so I’m forced to look into her eyes.

‘It can’t go on like this any longer’ she says, the tears making her eyes shine like diamonds. ‘You have to stop drinking and eat something. And Lucius just doesn’t understand why you are acting like this.’

‘It’s love’ I respond, still a bit nauseous. ‘Life without Cleander… It kills me. It kills me like nothing else can kill me. Torture may kill my body, but life without Cleander kills my soul.’ And there the tears come again. Cleander… My beautiful Cleander…

‘But brother, I am scared for you! This behavior… You’re playing with your life!’ Lucilla shakes my shoulders, her worries and frustration ever growing. ‘Listen to me!’ she sobs as she lets me go. ‘This behavior can cost you your life. I don’t want to lose you, despite those incestuous suggestions of yours. You are a crazy person, but under that, you’re a lovely, emotional being. And I love you for the being you are under that iron armor. And actually, I liked to see you being vulnerable for once in your life because I had the opportunity to take care of you like a sister, without those incestuous suggestions driving us apart.’

***

The speech woke me up. A few days passed since her speech, since I woke up from the eternal nightmare of being alone. I’m not alone, even if Cleander left me. I have my sister. My dear sister who’s heart I broke falling into such a depression.

Cleander has been trying to contact me on every possible way since we last saw each other, but I rejected him, every single time, even though it pierced my heart. My mind told me that it was for my own safety, but now I realize that I was a coward in doing that. If I’m really the strong, confident Emperor I think I am, I’d talk to Cleander. Or I’d try to, and now I’m going to do that.

I invited Cleander to come to me. I need to talk to him. I need to know how it’s going to be after our meeting. Will we stay together, or is it the end for our relation?

Cleander enters my bedroom, and I gesture him to sit next to me. My arm surrounds his shoulders as my lips caress his neck. No words needed to make me long for him again. I push him back on the bed as his lips find mine. He effortless rolls me over, topping me. We smile. This is how it has always been.

There is so much I want to tell Cleander, but he doesn’t give me any opportunity to, so I just give in to it. As we kiss, we undress each other, the longing returning to our bodies. It’s as if he never proposed to me, as if I never fell into an a week lasting depression. My cock hardened, remembering our past sexual encounters, just like the rest of my body remembers it, and it doesn’t take long before Cleander’s cock hardens too.

‘I love you’ is the only thing that escapes my lips.

Cleander’s cock pushes against my entrance, all too willing to enter. And I let him. He starts to thrust into my ass as his hand starts pumping my cock. We moan and grunt in pleasure as we slowly climb to climax. Almost as if we run up a hill to slide off on the other side.

After a few minutes we come at the same time. And then we kiss for some time, ignoring the sweat on our bodies.

‘Commodus, I understand it’ Cleander says once our kiss ends.. ‘We’ll have to delay our marriage. But we’ll always be together, with or without a ring around our fingers to prove it. I know that.’

‘Thanks.’ That’s just another prove that Cleander truly loves me. ‘You are the best thing that ever happened to me.’

And we seal that with a passionate kiss.


End file.
